The State of the Union is the night when a powerful, inspiring leader speaks to the nation.
She’s doing great.#StaceyAbrams
— The Hoarse Whisperer (@HoarseWisperer) February 6, 2019
Today recap: Trump heaps insults upon prominent Democrats; Trump makes annual call for unity using his once-a-year words; Trump asks Democrats to give in to him on immigration; Trump warns Democrats not to investigate him: https://t.co/IZXAanLGGE
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) February 6, 2019
You could feel which sections of the speech were authentically Trump and which ones were aides' attempts to get someone on TV to declare that today was the day Trump became president: https://t.co/IZXAanLGGE
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) February 6, 2019
In our poll with Morning Consult, 56 percent of voters disapprove of the job Trump is doing, including 44 percent who “strongly disapprove,” roughly twice the 23 percent who “strongly approve" https://t.co/CJv96jLqBY
— POLITICO (@politico) February 5, 2019
Definitely *not* the kind of news Addison Mitchell McConnell was hoping for…
?? hello darkness my old friend ?? pic.twitter.com/6fDU6LnyIa
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 6, 2019
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
McConnell looked miserable. I do wonder if Pelosi really broke him, combined with Trump humiliating him during the shutdown.
Baud
Abrams wad great, except for the lighting on the chorus behind her.
Does anyone have a video link to the Dem response Spanish? I couldn’t find it this morning.
JPL
I posted this below, but wanted to share it again. After SOTU Sean Spicer had an interview with Eric Bolling of Blaze TV.
He shared his insightful insights, and other pearls of wisdom. Don’t let your friends do taped interviews when they are apparently intoxicated. Hollywood Reporter has the story.
Mustang Bobby
I conked out before the show began. I was exhausted from giving my parakeet a karma transplant.
OzarkHillbilly
Repost
Song of Parkland airs 7 February at 7pm on HBO
J R in WV
So! Trump has fallen below the 27% crazifacation factor~!!!~
Amazing that he was able to do that…
It’s 4:26 am here on the mountain, coals glowing in the wood stove, wind growling around the corners of the house, Mexico city lights glowing in the near distance to the south. I’ll go back to bed in a minute, just taking a look to see how the Fucked State of our Union went over.
Some MSM folks evidently appear to believe it went well? Imagine that… I didn’t watch, but from the blog posts and such, I got the impression it was a dog of a presentation. With a 23% strong approval rating, looks like some Americans have noticed that THEY are the ones singled out for being screwed by Trump and McConnell..!! Imagine that, people watching themselves being screwed finally noticed!
p.a.
@JPL:
Spicer had been playing the ‘drink a shot at every Trump lie and smear’ game.
Immanentize
Whole speech will be forgotten by tomorrow after a few President tweets. Democratic Congresswomen in white will be remembered and discussed at next year’s SOTU. Nancy’s “fuck you clap” will live on for years.
OzarkHillbilly
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ???
JPL
@OzarkHillbilly: Thank you for the link. The trailer is quite powerful, and I pleased that HBO is going to air it.
JGabriel
Headline @ Today’s NYT Op-Ed Page:
I don’t know, oh great and glorious Moustache of Understanding.
What if I won the Powerball lottery today?
What if cats could speak and dogs could play chess?
What if buts-and-ands were pots and pans, and pigs could fly, and horses were wishes?
What if The New York Times hired new competent political analysts instead of holding onto tired hacks who have grown too lazy and complacent to do anything but outsource their political analysis to taxi drivers and flights of what-if fantasizing?
What then, Tom, what then?
waratah
McConnell always has a sour puss.
debbie
Did Stacey have to shorten her response because Trump went so long?
MagdaInBlack
@JGabriel:
*standing ovation* ?
JPL
@debbie: Her speech seemed about right to me I know she wrote it herself and I didn’t think it seemed truncated.
debbie
@JPL:
Good. What a dick move of him to go long.
Any grandchild news?
Baud
@debbie:
Seemed about the same length as past responses.
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
OzarkHillbilly
Amir Khalid
@JGabriel:
Thomas Friedman’s premise is painfully thin. Trump isn’t failing to explain his ideas; he fails at having ideas in the first place.
poleaxedbyboatwork
@JGabriel:
Friedman writes like he’s baked, which is an affront to alla people who derive artistry and brilliance and enlightenment while baked.
Friedman finds only muddled thinking and convoluted tortured prose. Oh, and his lint-filled navel. Which he finds endlessly fascinating, and, more’s the pity, wishes to share withal.
Waste. Of. Space.
kd bart
I assume Wilmer’s response was the same as every speech he’s given since 1997.
JGabriel
@poleaxedbyboatwork:
@Amir Khalid:
Yep. The column itself is somewhat better than the title would lead you to believe, but that’s not saying much. I mean, it’d almost have to be.
It’s still littered with enough what-if-ery and unchallenged right-wing assumptions that my critique stands.
JGabriel
@MagdaInBlack: Danke.
JGabriel
The Guardian via OzarkHillbilly:
That does seem to be the Trump administration’s modus operandi, Councilman Zuccolillo.
——
Edited to Add:
Is The Guardian the only non-local publication reporting on this story? If so, it’s disappointing that American media isn’t covering it.
JPL
@poleaxedbyboatwork: He could have insightful insights just like Spicer after a few drinks.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I didn’t watch the speech last night, and looking at various sites this morning, I conclude I made a good decision.
Baud
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Third longest ever. Our Dem leaders deserve hazard pay.
hueyplong
Isn’t 23% within the standard 4% margin of error of the iron line of 27%?
Might be true that a mass cable outtage cutting the faithful off from their FoxNews IV is what it will take to dip below the crazification line beyond any margin of statistical error.
poleaxedbyboatwork
re: the new boogeyman (“oooh-scaaary!”) socialism
My first reaction is, ya, good, gimme some a that! Not sure the socialism card is got the same Reagan-era stroke it once did in frightening the children and the horses, but would like to see Dems do, at minimum, two things:
1. not run away from the charge but rather define it on their terms and embrace it, and
2. counter it effectively.
Am hoping some higher-ups have been doing a bit of thinking about this, cuz it’s evident “oooh-scary!-socialism!” is the new bete noir that’s gonna get hauled out to galvanize the rubes into slandering the Dems as “unAmerican”.
Me, I got no great insights on this ‘cept, maybe:
If you stipulate the old saw that a government is just a big fucking insurance company with a military, I would argue (and have with more’n one Trumpster up here) that if you can name me, writ large, a more socialistic institution than the United States military, I’d like to hear it.
Unless you wanna talk about social security. Or Medicare. Both of which, last I checked, are over-fucking-whelmingly popular. We *already got* us some socialism in these here United States. That ship done already sailt.
What Dems should be proposing, and are, thankfully, is an unapologetic push toward are more just and equitable representation of the socialism we already have. Where rich folks patriotically OWE something to a country (besides selfish “don’t-touch-my-shit!” bitching) that makes their extravagant wealth possible.
Bobby Thomson
@poleaxedbyboatwork: no special response required. Ask Steve Schmidt and Matt Rhoades how well running on “My opponent is socialist!” works. All they did was dilute the term and convince a large chunk of younger Americans that socialism is, if not a good thing, nothing to be feared.
NotMax
Bringing this up from downstairs. Thought that was the morning thread.
Hoocudanode?
So much winning.
In other news,
NotMax
@JGabriel
Friedman will write the same column in six months.
;)
poleaxedbyboatwork
@Bobby Thomson:
Fair enough. You’re talking aught-eight Obama-McCain, right? If ya, I take your point.
But:
Guess I’ma saying you can transform an issue from one that is argued from a defensive crouch into one that is proudly advanced as an affirmative good. Which helps in stretching the Overton Window and thereby expanding what’s possible.
Like to see the nation not haveta be beholden to the most progressive world imaginable to the likes of Joe Lieberman or Max Baucus.
A Ghost To Most
@kd bart:
Old man yells at kids?
schrodingers_cat
Did anyone hear the BS speech?
NotMax
@schrodingers_cat
You mean outside the Kremlin and the state home for the chronically cranky, right?
schrodingers_cat
@NotMax: I meant any Balloon Juicer currently in the comment section.
Matt McIrvin
No, but seeing a lot of his bros attacking women for criticizing him on Twitter.
Kay
@Bobby Thomson:
True, I think, and funny to watch, that cynicism and too-cleverness backfire.
O. Felix Culpa
@schrodingers_cat: Why would I punish myself like that? This is why I come to Balloon Juice, so that others can punish themselves on my behalf. ;)
Didn’t watch the orange squatter in the WH either. Not enough money or chocolate in the world….
Also too, good morning!
Baud
@Baud:
It’s 2019. I can’t believe how hard it is to find a video of this.
NotMax
Ever nagged by the feeling that things are fundamentally warped? Turns out you’re not far off the mark.
Research: First accurate 3D map of the Milky Way reveals a warped galaxy
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Baud: Aquí está, amigo. It begins at 2:07. There’s some microcephalic clown performing for the first two hours.
I haven’t listened to it yet either, going to check it out this morning.
As always, just listening to the reporters for a couple of minutes reinforces my resolution to listen to more Spanish TV to increase my listening comprehension, but they talk so damn fast!
Immanentize
@Baud:
embedded in article?
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Matt McIrvin: The D women’s decision to wear white last night really emphasized how many of them there are and how they’re all on one side. Surely that sends chills down Rs’ backs.
JMG
The whole purpose of the “socialism” charge is to try and convince the real base of Trump’s voters, the affluent but not wealthy, that proposals to tax the rich are aimed at THEM, that raising rates on hedge fund partners and NFL owners is the same thing as raising them on retired dentists in the Villages, auto dealers in Midwestern suburbs and farmers who’re land rich if not cash rich. Since these worthies identify with the super rich as role models, it’s an easy sell.
NotMax
@Baud
Easy peasy. Here ya go
Immanentize
@Baud:
Your Google Fu, however, I am sure is better than Bernie’s
Baud 2020!
Baud
@Immanentize:
@NotMax:
Balloon Juice > Google
Thank you!
ET
Question for the horde…… I didn’t watch the SOTU but I never watch them even when I like the president, so I can’t comment. I know the speech was for his base out in ‘Murica but did tRump give Republicans in Congress what they needed to stick with him openly or at least passively?
I ask because it seems a lot of people keep referring to the Watergate comment from Nixon and how less than a year later he was gone (because Republicans in Congress finally jumped off the sinking ship) and wondered did tRump give them something they can (try) to spin into a Great speech or are behind the scenes are they grinding their teeth and secretly thinking about an off-ramp or at least wondering if keeping quite and invisible is the best route for their own personal survival. Did it make them happy and glad they were sticking with him or did it make them sigh and wish he cold act like a normal person for 2 hours? Did it make them feel he had finally! grown into the presidency or did did they wonder why it hadn’t?
schrodingers_cat
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: He always looks constipated.
Immanentize
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
I liked when Trump couldn’t resist his inner voice and told the cheering women of the House — “You weren’t supposed to do that.”
Kay
It must suck to be the minority party in the House. Especially for a Cheney! They’re like royalty. Why, at one time both she and her husband had appointed (nepotism) positions in the Bush Administration. It’s a real come down.
Let’s keep her in a minority, sniping bitterly at the majority.
Immanentize
@ET:
To answer that, you only needed to watch McConnell who was tres miserable throughout and made no effort to hide his horror.
Kay
@ET:
Is this even a question? They’ve completely abdicated any role they had. They back him on everything, just as they have done, lockstep, since the day he took office.
This isn’t going to happen. There is never going to be practical or effective opposition to Trump in the GOP. They’re simply not up to that. They don’t have the necessary qualities and skills to achieve that. Maybe they did in the Watergate era! They don’t now.
poleaxedbyboatwork
Anyone ever see a film callt Make Way for Tomorrow?
Leo McCarey, ’37, same year as The Awful Truth (screwball comedy that made Carey Grant Carey Grant). McCarey won best director at the Oscars that year for The Awful Truth n he sez some like: “Thanks, guys, but you gimme the award for the wrong movie.”
It’s a little marvel of a film, about aging parents and what to do and adult-child guilt and two seniors still very much in love. The amazing thing, to me, is McCarey allows the viewer to see and understand everyone’s position, as complicated and anguished as it is.
It’s a beautiful, heart-wrenching film.
Immanentize
@Kay: She really owned the libs with that one!
The bitter Fox news woman commentator schtick has I think run its course. I know there will always be an audience for such disingenuous stuff, but I think that audience is dying off.
NotMax
@poleaxedbyboatwork
Great little flick, with a very un-Hollywoodish ending.
Kraux Pas
@OzarkHillbilly:
In fairness to the officer, these arbitrary mass shootings are
alwaysliterally never perpetrated by black men.Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Immanentize:
Wait, what? For those of us who don’t want to scrol through 2 hours of video of him, what was that clap?
OzarkHillbilly
@NotMax: Read that yesterday. Can’t help thinking this has something to do with it, even if it was 10 billion years ago.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Trump and Holocast survivor was because Socialism = Nazis in the derptastic, pig ignorant world of the Conservative. Goodwins law and all that.
poleaxedbyboatwork
@schrodingers_cat:
Yes.
And the alternating evil oval of his gob as he pauses meaninglessly followed as day follows night by the feral baring of his chompers and the rattling of his wattles makes watching him as excruciating as listening to him.
NotMax
@OzarkHillbilly
The further out from the galactic center the more prominently warped things get.
Look where we happened to end up taking up residence.
Just sayin’.
;)
rikyrah
Sam Stein (@samstein) Tweeted:
NEWS — Amy Klobuchar says on MSNBC she will be making an announcement on a presidential run this Sunday in Minneapolis
https://twitter.com/samstein/status/1092997917797953540?s=17
rikyrah
@Kay:
Bitter shrew??
OzarkHillbilly
@Kraux Pas: BBGG. Big Black Guy with Gun.
rikyrah
Uh uh uh?
BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) Tweeted:
Pope admits clerical abuse of nuns including sexual slavery
https://t.co/LjNCyQ1X0m https://twitter.com/BBCWorld/status/1092870086426284032?s=17
rikyrah
Uh huh ?
Lynn V (@lynnv378) Tweeted:
Chris Matthews just legit compared Amy Klobuchar to Kamala Harris/Cory Booker and their performances on the Senate Judiciary. Said Klobuchar is mild-mannered and America might prefer someone who isn’t as angry and aggressive………
https://twitter.com/lynnv378/status/1093000998967230464?s=17
But her emails!!!
@Kay:
“Babies” only have the right to live so long as Liz doesn’t have to pay to secure that right. A fetus with a medical condition that will result in a torturous few days of existence while extreme medical efforts bankrupt the parents must be born. A fetus with a correctable defect, but no insurance. Well, it needs to be sacrificed on the alter of “fuck you lazy moochers, I’m not paying for it.”
rikyrah
Uh huh ??
Okoye (@amyinharlem) Tweeted:
@lynnv378 Did you also notice how when Maddow said Abrams was very influential in the Democratic Party, Brian Williams responded “so is Beto”. I can’t with these men ??♀️
https://twitter.com/amyinharlem/status/1093002371981037570?s=17
Dorothy A. Winsor
@rikyrah: Have you seen “Vice”? Liz does not come across well in that. I want that movie to run on a loop in some waiting room where she’s stuck.
OzarkHillbilly
@NotMax:
Hmmmmmm…. I wonder if that explains the GOP?
Elizabelle
Good morning. I am a happy girl, with not having listened to one word out of Trump’s mouth last night. Just looked in from time to time at the visuals, and spun my soundtrack of youtube songs in the background.
Only way to get through this fucker’s stolen term. And resist, resist, resist. Encourage those who will return us to kindness, respect, modernity. and balance.
poleaxedbyboatwork
@NotMax:
Ya, apparently McCarey hadda fight with Adolph Zukor to keep that ending; Zukor, naturally, wanted an uncomplicated happy ending.
Dunno why, but that lil aside put me to mind of a Bloom County strip when Steve is an astronaut tryn’ta describe the wonder of the earth when viewed from outer space and sounds some like Tom Friedman doin it, to which Opus opines wistfully that maybe one day they’ll send up a poet.
rikyrah
@But her emails!!!:
This is nothing but the truth
rikyrah
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Nope. I can’t even imagine watching anything concerning The Evil One. Not even for free.
sherparick
@JGabriel: If you are married into a family that is worth a couple of billion dollars, you can just mail it in.https://www.forbes.com/profile/bucksbaum/#2f4920552740 (Friedman’s wife is the brother of John Bucksbaum and is a beneficiary of the family trusts described in the article.)
Dorothy A. Winsor
@rikyrah: It’s a horrifyingly entertaining film made by the same guy who made “The Big Short.”
Jeffro
@JGabriel: Tom’s a fucking idiot. I was more on-the-ball back when I was a college freshman staying up too late and pondering whether the whole universe was really just an atom of dust under a giant’s fingernail.
poleaxedbyboatwork
@rikyrah:
Dick Cheney was Rosemary’s Baby?
Betty Cracker
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
schrodingers_cat
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Horrifying because it is entertaining? Or entertaining because it is horrifying?
poleaxedbyboatwork
@Betty Cracker:
Now that’s a full-service blog!
Can you help me find the car keys I lost?
Amir Khalid
@sherparick:
Wait, what?
poleaxedbyboatwork
@schrodingers_cat:
All of ’em, Katie!
Jeffro
Also in today’s NYT: Thomas Edsall asks the burning question, “What Does Tucker Carlson Know that the Republican Party Doesn’t?”
(Carlson quotes in italics):
Edsall’s answer: “Well, you know, it’s kinda complicated…Tucker seems to be on to something…and hey, here are all these fine ‘center-right’ folks* I’d like you to consider as the country searches for solutions…blah, blah, blah”
My answer: “Tucker knows that trumpublicans better keep pretending to sympathize with downtrodden working-class whites, or they’re toast”
I think history will show I’m a little more on point than ol’ Thomas, but who knows?
*one of whom is Oren Cass, who sounds like a thinly-veiled hippie puncher and immigrant hater, yet is somehow a “moderate center-right” figure. Well these days, I guess the ‘veil’ = ‘moderate’? Ugh.
chopper
@JGabriel:
i can’t wait for his next column, “If My Bubbe Had Balls She’d Be My Zayde”
Jeffro
@Betty Cracker: Someone…maybe Mikel Joellet? had that pic with the caption, “My wife when I tell her I changed a diaper”. YUP.
Amir Khalid
@Jeffro:
I have noticed that in some contexts, “moderate” means not quite wild-eyed and foaming at the mouth.
Immanentize
@Jeffro:
I’ve lived so long that I remember when talking about “class” was a political capital offense. In fact, Republicans thought that discussions of inequalities was:
Class War! Class War!!!
O. Felix Culpa
I just watched Kamala Harris’s pre-SOTU and Stacey Abrams’s post-SOTU speeches. Both were very good, although I thought Kamala’s was better. More substance, imho, although I suppose they fulfill different purposes. Stacey resoundingly beat the curse of the rebuttal and I hope she wins the major public office she deserves. In the meantime, Kamala keeps going up in my favorability factor. There’s a weird delay in the Kamala video: speech doesn’t start until about 1:52.
schrodingers_cat
@Jeffro: Edsall is nothing but a Republican concern troll, who dresses his concerns in statistics.
OzarkHillbilly
Busted:
Mother Jones highlights one type of cluster but I have spotted 2 other suspiciously repeating clusters. I suppose it’s possible that one of them is the result of software language/algorithm whatever, but the one highlighted by MJ is rather undeniable.
Kraux Pas
@Jeffro:
Making an effort to insert plausible deniability into their racism has been the Republicans’ only effort to moderate for years. I loved the parts of this article lamenting that we have non-citizens on welfare (no mention of the duration or proportion of citizens on it or which programs or any context whatsoever) but we have hundreds of thousands of homeless American citizens.
“Why don’t we take care of Americans first?”
Gee, maybe because Republicans keep pointing at immigrants on other people supposedly on the dole as an excuse to not provide help to people who need it; people who are homeless, struggling workers, people with chronic or undetected health issues, people who could benefit from more eduction…
sdhays
@Immanentize: The awkward way he handles unexpected things, particularly ones that are at least somewhat detrimental to him, is the closest thing to an endearing quality he has.
WaterGirl
@Immanentize: I almost love Nancy’s “fuck you” clap as much as I love the image of Jump! You Fuckers! I think her clap will resonate for a long, long time.
Betty Cracker
@Jeffro: Ha! Perfect!
OzarkHillbilly
@Jeffro: I saw a piece on that TC monologue the other day, it was all empty platitudes as since then he has directly contradicted several things he said in that episode.
Dingdingdingding! We have a winner.
Betty Cracker
@O. Felix Culpa: I like Harris, but I wish she hadn’t given a SOTU-related speech. All Democrats should have let Abrams have the night. Of course Sanders gave his own rebuttal, but he’s not a Democrat.
OzarkHillbilly
@Immanentize: To which the obvious response was, “It is a class war, and we’re losing.”
rikyrah
@Betty Cracker:
I didn’t think that it was genuine. When I found out that it was
?????
poleaxedbyboatwork
@OzarkHillbilly:
Sock-puppet candidate, sock-puppet campaign.
It’s the heart-warming story of the mystifying candidate no one asked for, serving the imaginary citizens who don’t exist. Truly a story for our times. Get the NYT onnit, STAT!
rikyrah
@schrodingers_cat:
Edsall is SO cancelled
Punchy
I want someone in the media to start asking Lindsay Graham every single day about the wall. About his stated desire to see DJT use Emergency Powers (TM) when McTurtle has said otherwise. How he said “no wall” meant “no more Pres. Trump”….
I mean, for about 3 weeks, Graham was a insufferable shithead saying all sorts of threatening and ridiculous shit tied to this stupid wall. Why does he get to skate and everyone just act like he never said those things? Doesn’t he have to be accountable for his bullshit?
Fair Economist
@OzarkHillbilly:
I find this rather plausible. Deep red areas are where the r*tf**ker Republican trying to mess up the Democratic nomination congregate. That’s why deep Red states supported Hillary in 2008 and then Bernie in 2016. That’s going to be Gabbard’s base.
schrodingers_cat
@rikyrah: Every Edsall column, Ds are doing it wrong.
OzarkHillbilly
@Fair Economist: Go look at the map her campaign posted. I could easily envision 3500 watch parties, most of which consisted of 1 or 2 people. The phrase is meaningless. The map they put out is even worse. Again, there maybe a software thingamabob causing one type of cluster to repeat as it does, but it’s mighty suspicious when there are 3 types.
Elizabelle
@schrodingers_cat: I know. I cannot read them without smelling a tinge of urine and flopsweat in the background.
Edsall did have one good column recently. One. He was not so dismal.
I think Edsall exists to depress Democrats. He is not homed at the FTF NY Times by accident.
Gelfling 545
@Amir Khalid: He doesn’t do ideas. He does whims.
Kraux Pas
@Punchy:
Because few people follow politics very closely and our media is terrible at providing context or following a story in a coherent way long-term.
Not in the current media environment, no.
Jeffro
@schrodingers_cat: Eh, I agree for the most part, but occasionally he’ll throw out something insightful. And as he is a non-trumpist Republican who often points out where the GOP is going off the rails/vulnerable, I find that…useful ;)
@Elizabelle: Maybe (re: existing to depress Ds). More like he exists to run cover for the Rs, to continue the facade that a significant % of the GOP is somehow “principled” or “conservative” or even “rational”.
O. Felix Culpa
@Betty Cracker: I wonder if it was a coordinated Dem strategy or if Harris did this on her own. I liked the way Harris said “watch for this…, watch for this…” in preparation for the SOTU. A pre-rebuttal of the garbage T was going to spew. Using actual facts and logic, imagine! Stacey held her own and I suspect a lot more people watched her than the Harris speech.
Kraux Pas
I only found out about the Kamala Harris video today and can’t find video. Anyone able to point me the right way?
O. Felix Culpa
In the meantime, yet another rich white racist fat fucker caught saying racist things. This is my shocked face. And fuck the Cubs. [Southsider]
rikyrah
@Kay:
They are compromised…or just weak…take your pick
O. Felix Culpa
@Kraux Pas: Scroll down this article and fast forward a bit. It’s an awkward start but gets better.
Edited.
Gin & Tonic
@O. Felix Culpa: OT, but IIRC you asked me about Scandinavia last year. Are you still planning a trip this year, or has that passed?
O. Felix Culpa
@Gin & Tonic: Still going! We leave early June – first Sweden, then visiting friends in Denmark. I still have an unplanned week at the end. Perhaps Norway? Pining for the fjords and all. Thank you for asking, btw. :)
The Midnight Lurker
OT… but this is FUNNY! Dogs telling ‘Dad’ jokes!
https://mockpaperscissors.com/2019/02/05/midday-palate-cleanser-655/
japa21
@Betty Cracker: I agree the clap is funny, but to me, even more precious was the look on her face. Basically it was a “I own you” look.
ruemara
I can’t describe the level of anger hearing that man speak inspires in me. I cannot believe this fucker is president and I hope the whole lot dies screaming.
Kraux Pas
@ruemara: You aren’t alone.
Gin & Tonic
@O. Felix Culpa: The fjords are indeed wonderful. We took the train from Oslo to Bergen, which is amazing in its own right (the train ride, I mean) then took an all-day boat ride into the Sognefjord. We also took two days to drive the coast highway south from Bergen to Stavanger, which involves, I think, a half-dozen tunnels and two ferry rides. One of the tunnels is about 8 km in length, which is really impressive. The funny thing is that everyone we talked to in Stockholm and in Oslo, when we mentioned our plans, said basically “oh, it’ll be raining all the time.” Blue sky every single day (and in mid-May, it was light until well past 10:00 pm in Bergen.) Dumb luck, I guess. Had a really great time, but be warned that Scandinavia is very expensive.
The Moar You Know
I completely missed President Anusmouth’s performance last night, get up today to listen to the BBC World Service and what’s on? President Anusmouth.
Give me a break. It’s bad enough that he’s here. Can’t I just ignore him until he dies/is removed/is arrested/loses?
Jerzy Russian
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
That is a good summary. I was (sort of) dragged in to see the film myself, but like you I was entertained and horrified.
O. Felix Culpa
@Gin & Tonic: Thanks for the tips! I’ve been considering that train and boat ride, plus a little hiking in the region. I just need to give myself enough time to get back to Copenhagen for my return flight. I’m saving my pennies (well, not really) in anticipation of the high cost of Scandinavia. Most of my travel is low-budget, so this will be a splurge outing.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@The Midnight Lurker: Is that what a “Dad joke” is? That’s the kind of stuff I used to think was endlessly amusing in Highlights magazine when I was a kid. So does it become a Dad joke when you’re 40 years old and you’ve been waiting to tell this joke since you were 8?
West of the Rockies
@Baud:
I was kind of hoping the chorus would end with the humming from Coolio’s excellent Gangsters’ Paradise.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@schrodingers_cat:
Both. I was horrified by Cheney and also horrified at myself for finding the film entertaining. Like watching a car wreck or something.
Uncle Cosmo
@O. Felix Culpa: One way I found to save in Scandinavia is a slight alteration in eating habits. If a hotel provides a substantial breakfast buffet, pig out – I used to have 4-course breakfasts in Norway. Check your tourist guides for restaurants offering lunch specials (usually much cheaper than supper), target a few in the area where you’ll be touring, get there just before the specials end (usually 3 PM) & have a late lunch. In the evening, instead of a full sit-down meal, have a light snack (pizza by the slice, take-out pasta or Oriental, etc.). Probably healthier for you as well.
Remember that anything alcoholic will be horrifically expensive, & avoid if at all possible. The only decent place I found for drinks was the Viking Line overnight cruises between Stockholm & Helsinki (also to Turku, also offered by Silja Line last time I was over there) which (last I looked) offered top-flight buffet meals & duty free shopping (owing to a quirk in EU regs).
All this was quite some time ago, so check this advice out on travel sites before you go. Have fun!
MCA1
@poleaxedbyboatwork: I don’t think Democrats need to just embrace the label of “socialism” (or that it could work – the word’s been turned into an epithet and a synonym for “communism”). I do totally agree that the Overton Window needs to be moved, though, so I’m all in favor of giving AOC and Warren megaphones to start driving the conversation. “Economic justice” is a phrase I’d like to see more of.
Some coordinated talking points and consistency from Democrats would be helpful, too. If I were chief strategist, I’d tell Dems to start preemptively combating the “socialism” charge when they’re talking about their tax proposal or Medicare expansion or whatever it is, to help inoculate against it. “The GOP is going to whine about how this is ‘socialism’ [say it in a mock scary voice or something to belittle the idea, even] but they’re just fearmongering because they blindly worship unregulated capitalism without any regard to how it treats the 99% of the population that’s not their donor base. This isn’t socialism. We’re not talking about government control over the means of production. We just want a more just capitalism. Ask the people in Appalachia how our unregulated late-stage capitalism is working for them. How are things going for the working class in rural Wisconsin these days? That doctor in Denver who’s making really good money but paying twice the effective tax rate as the hedge fund guy who pulls in $5M a year – does he think that’s fair? Our economic system is failing half the country and we’ve allowed 1% of the population to gobble up almost half of our aggregate wealth. What kind of society stands for that?”